Crypto Community Questions if Len Sassaman Was Satoshi Nakamoto

An upcoming HBO documentary titled “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery,” scheduled to premiere on Oct. 8, asserts that it has identified the person behind the Bitcoin network’s creation.

The leading suspect is American cypherpunk and cryptographer Leonard Harris “Len” Sassaman.

Sassaman tragically passed away in July 2011 due to suicide, and a tribute was embedded in BTC block 138,725 on July 30, 2011, that stated:

“This block contains the transaction memorializing American technologist and cryptographer Leonard Harris Sassaman in ASCII art.”

Who Was Len Sassaman?

On Oct. 6, crypto researcher ‘symbiote’ shared his analysis concerning the HBO theory, noting that there are several “tenuous pieces of evidence” that lend support to it.

With a commendable academic background and expertise in cryptography, Sassaman’s writing has shown linguistic parallels to that of Satoshi Nakamoto, he explained, continuing:

“The most striking piece of evidence is that Nakamoto ceased communication two months prior to Sassaman’s passing.”

Another intriguing aspect is that Sassaman’s suicide note comprised 24 random words, resembling the 24-word seed phrases used in cryptocurrency wallets, he added.

This is Len Sassaman – the man who holds $64B in $BTC

He might be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin

I spent ~10 hours researching: the information I uncovered amazed me

Here is the narrative of the largest crypto billionaire ever pic.twitter.com/WgFCxow75C

— symbiote (@cryptosymbiiote) October 5, 2024

Researcher ‘ardizor’ added further credibility to the theory in a post on X on Oct. 6. He noted that from an early age, Len had a deep interest in privacy, advocating for protection against internet surveillance.

Sassaman was involved with the Internet Engineering Task Force, which helped develop the TCP/IP protocol that serves as the backbone of the Internet.

He also played a role in significant privacy projects, including Pretty Good Privacy software and GNU Privacy Guard.

Sassaman was among the initial Bitcoin adopters, which included his friend Hal Finney, who received the first BTC transaction from Satoshi.

Whether Sassaman was indeed Satoshi remains unclear, but some would prefer to keep this identity shrouded in mystery.

The world is better off not knowing the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.

— Anthony Pompliano (@APompliano) October 6, 2024

Large BTC Reserve Remains Unclaimed

Participants on Polymarket have Sassaman leading the polls with a 36% likelihood of being identified as Bitcoin’s creator. Other potential candidates include Hal Finney, Adam Back, and Nick Szabo.

However, Sassaman’s widow expressed skepticism about her late husband’s possibility being Bitcoin’s inventor in a tweet from 2021.

This revelation may bode well for the network and Bitcoin holders, as Sassaman is no longer living, and the individual claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto holds over a million BTC across various addresses, which could potentially remain untouched indefinitely.